Penn State students have been working with a faculty member all semester to experiment with an immersive virtual reality (IVR) system called Oculus Rift and examine how this system and others may enhance student learning -- both on campus and online. The group hopes IVR technology can eventually give students taking online courses a way to become more engaged in their coursework.

A Penn State researcher is working on a system called Maintained Individual Data, Distributed Likelihood Evaluation (MIDDLE) that changes the way data is collected and reported. The system will enable researchers to conduct studies and participants to keep control over their data.

It's a common scenario in households in which one person is more tech-savvy than the others -- the more knowledgeable person does the majority of the technology maintenance and the other gets to kick back on the sofa. But, it may not be as good as it sounds for the tech-challenged bunch, according to Erika Poole, a Penn State Information Sciences and Technology assistant professor who conducted a study recently to examine whether these types of arrangements hinder the other housemates from developing technology skills of their own.

To help fisheries around the world adopt more environmentally friendly fishing practices, the American Bird Conservancy turned to Penn State’s Center for Environmental Informatics (CEI), a group of earth scientists and geographers who turn scientific data into usable decision-making tools, to build a one-of-a-kind online mapping application.

A disruption in the wireless service at Penn State's campuses has affected the ability of some students, faculty and staff to connect to the “PSU” wireless network. The disruption is unrelated to efforts that are underway in the College of Engineering.

Until recently, time banking had been mostly managed with desktop transaction systems. But in an ever-more-mobile society, Jack Carroll — a distinguished professor in the College of Information Sciences and Technology — got the idea to create an app in which members of time banking communities could record their hours, post jobs and hire other members from their smartphones.

Master of landscape architecture students Chase Weaver and Xinxin Li could have used a 3-D printer to quickly generate more than 2,000 trees for their 3-by-8 foot landscape models, but they chose to make the replicas by hand, the way generations of landscape architects did before them. They are learning that while technology is beneficial in their field, using tangible objects also helps them understand spatial relationships in their designs.

Nikki Hill, a postdoctoral fellow in Penn State’s College of Nursing who works with older adults, wants to improve the lives of people living with memory loss and is developing an app that might offer a solution.

In today’s digital world, many companies use a variety of social, mobile, analytic and cloud technology tools to analyze every step of the customer's journey and stay competitive. With so much data, it can be difficult to know where to start. That’s where professionals, like those in the management information systems program, are needed.